BRITISH & Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland could aim to counteract the lack of Scottish representation in his coaching party for the tour to New Zealand by inviting someone from the national team’s set-up to at least one selection meeting.
Both Gregor Townsend and Jason O’Halloran, currently Glasgow Warriors head coach and Scotland assistant coach respectively, turned down offers from Gatland to join him as assistants for this summer’s tour. Gatland is conscious that the absence of a Scottish voice could jeopardise the Scotland players’ chances of being called up, and on a visit to Edinburgh to watch the team train last week he explained that Andy Irvine, the former Scotland full-back who is one of the country’s two representatives on the Lions committee, had suggested a way to remedy that.
“It would have made a hell of a difference if Gregor or Jason had been able to go on tour,” Gatland said. “I spoke to Andy Irvine about it, and he said ‘Would you ask one of the coaches to come along to a selection meeting, whether it’s Gregor, Jason or [Scotland coach] Vern Cotter?’. I had a good chat to [Scotland team manager] Gavin Scott as well, about players we’re looking it and what they’re like around the squad and as people.
“I chatted to Vern afterwards and potentially we might invite someone to come to a selection meeting to give a Scottish perspective. You want a balance there. You want someone pushing players, and at the moment they haven’t really got that voice. It’s only an external view, from me or [assistant coaches] Steve Borthwick, or Andy Farrell or Rob Howley. They [Scotland’s coaches] obviously know the players a hell of a lot better than we do, so it’s not ideal.”
Gatland can make his own mind up about theform of players, of course, but when it comes to finalising the tour party in the middle of next month he wants to know more about an individual’s personality than can be gleaned from watching him play. He used the example of the candidates for inside centre to suggest how Scotland’s Alex Dunbar could suffer by comparison with Robbie Henshaw of Ireland or Owen Farrell of England because of a lack of information.
“Who’s pushing someone like Alex Dunbar compared to someone else in the same position from another country? He’s done pretty well. There’s some different combinations and a reasonable number of players from a 13 perspective, but there’s not a massive amount from a 12 perspective.
“Henshaw has done pretty well, Farrell could play there, you’ve got Dunbar, other guys in the Scottish set-up who are not recently playing, but where’s their voice? Are they the type of people who would respond to being away for six weeks?
“It’s a balance between players with form at the moment against players with some experience. It’s not just about picking your 15 or your 23. There’s a lot to be said for getting the right personalities and characters on tour - people who can gel together as a team.
“If you went through every one of the squad, there will be one or two players who are a little bit petulant, don’t handle being dropped, and aren’t the greatest team members. When you’re having those discussions, you don’t want too many of them to go. You want some characters involved.”
Gatland has ruled out having incoming Scotland coach Townsend officially join the Lions late in the tour after his own country’s tour to Australia is over, but insisted that he and other national coaches would be welcomed informally. “The message from me to the national teams is that if they’re down in New Zealand, our door is open for them. If they want to come to meetings, debriefs, previews, training sessions, they’re more than welcome.”
Warren Gatland was at the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh to learn where Dr Tilo Kunath conducts research on a novel cell therapy – work funded by The Cure Parkinson’s Trust (CPT). The Lions are supporting The CPT with a “Leading the Lions” fundraising dinner at Sheraton Grand Hotel, Edinburgh on Thursday 27 April. The dinner will see great names from Lions history come together with Gatland, 1993 Lions captain Gavin Hastings and tour manager and 1971 Lion John Spencer. To book places please visit tours.lionsrugby.com/leading-the-lions/ or call 0344 788 4067.
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